Stadium neighbors have mixed reactions -- Newsday.com

Many neighbors of Yankee Stadium never believed George Steinbrenner when he threatened, at various times in the past 11 years, to move his team away from the Bronx.

But few seem to doubt his new avowal to stay.

The difference, of course, is that he's just moving across the street. Though he still needs City Council land use approval, top elected leaders have flashed him the signs to erect a new stadium with corporate boxes aplenty in Macombs Dam Park and adjacent Mullaly Park, one of most crowded recreational spaces in the city.

"I think it's a horrible idea," said Eric Heredia, 23, who studies photography and graphic arts at Borough of Manhattan Community College, after circling the half-mile track that surrounds a dusty soccer field in Macombs Dam Park.

"For one thing, Yankee Stadium is a classic." Heredia said. "Why tear it down? And if you ever come to this park during the weekend, it's packed. This is the Bronx. It's not like we have a lot of parkland to spare."

To some who live or work in the shadow of the elevated tracks, the disruptions caused by a three-year construction project, the lack of designated laborer jobs for Bronx men and women, and the destruction of the community's softball diamond, tennis courts, soccer field, toddler lot and track are nothing to cheer or look forward to.

But others see the makings of a good deal for their community, one that the Yankees franchise has in past years decried as unsafe, unsanitary and intimidating to its suburban fans.

While Lon Wilson, 57, is a coach who regularly leads Harlem and Bronx teenagers in power-walk workouts in Macombs Park, he said he likes the latest stadium project because of what it may reap: The old stadium will be partially preserved for concerts and sporting events, and its grounds will host a 10-story hotel, a Yankees museum, a new high school for sports careers, a Metro North railroad stop, and a track for Hostos Community College-sponsored bicycle racing.

As for parkland, he said the lost acreage is to be replaced by a 28-acre park along the Harlem River, along with athletic fields atop shopping or parking structures at the Bronx Terminal Market. "This has the added benefit of potentially bringing up real estate," said Wilson, who has a co-op just to the north.

Then again, it could have the effect of displacing some neighbors like Mioko Tajika, 26, a recent graduate of a Wisconsin law school who moved in with friends along the Grand Concourse this spring.

"I am not particularly fond of the idea," she said. "There's going to be a lot of construction, a lot of noise. And I'll be very sad to lose the parks and, in particular, the track."